We’re keeping track of the most up-to-date news about the coronavirus in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. Check back for updates.

Texas stores, restaurants can partially reopen Friday despite coronavirus, Abbott says

Gov. Greg Abbott outlined standards Monday to guide the next phase of reopenings amid the coronavirus outbreak, allowing Texas restaurants, retail stores, movie theaters, malls and more to reopen with limited occupancy starting Friday.

Businesses will be allowed to reopen in phases, with the first set permitted to operate at 25% capacity starting Friday. Depending on the spread of the novel coronavirus in the state, the second phase could begin as early as May 18, Abbott said.

Abbott’s previous executive order requiring Texans to stay home unless participating in activities deemed “essential” by the state has been in effect since April 2 and is set to last through April 30. Abbott said Monday from the Texas Capitol the order “has done its job to slow the growth of COVID-19” and that he will let it expire as scheduled.

Abbott said the state has been laying the groundwork to reopen since March, and he pointed to steps taken like closing schools for the remainder of the academic year, the state’s efforts to secure personal protective equipment, set up additional healthcare facilities and more.

“Now, it’s time to set a new course,” Abbott said, stressing that standards will be based upon data and doctors.

“We’re not going to just open up and hope for the best. Instead, we will put measures in place that will help businesses open while also containing the virus and keeping Texans safe,” Abbott said.

Abbott’s new guidance was crafted with the input from the “Strike Force to Open Texas,” a taskforce advised by public health experts, business leaders and state officials. The strike force issued a report Monday that includes detailed guidance for employees and businesses and recommends Texans avoid face-to-face interactions, wear face masks and remain 6 feet apart when in public.

Is Tarrant County flattening coronavirus curve? After worst week, new cases fall to 72.

Tarrant County finally saw a decrease in new coronavirus cases reported on Monday, after almost a week of daily case counts of more than 100.

The county reported 72 new COVID-19 cases and no deaths Monday, for a total of 2,019 cases, including 289 recoveries and 53 deaths.

There were a combined total of nearly 800 new cases confirmed last week, a weekly high for the county in which new cases spiked at 150 on Thursday.

Cases are reported when Tarrant County Public Health receives the test results, but officials cautioned early last week that some results had been delayed, resulting in a backlog.

Despite the deluge of new cases last week, the curve could be flattening, according to data tracked by the county which shows the specimen collection date. As of Monday, these numbers appear to be about 100 cases behind the case counts being reported daily. The rate at which cases are doubling is slowing down, according to the county’s collection date data.

The number of confirmed cases is currently doubling approximately every 17 days, according to the data.

As of Monday, 53% of hospital beds in the county were occupied. More than 3,000 beds were occupied, and 175 of those are confirmed COVID-19 patients, according to the county’s statistics.

Tarrant County isn’t doing enough social distancing amid coronavirus, data shows

Many people are following stay-at-home orders and exercising social distancing.

But apparently not enough.

Tarrant County scored a D on the most recent COVID-19 social distancing scoreboard, according to smartphone GPS data compiled by Unacast, an analytics company that has gathered data from tens of millions of cell phone users across the world.

That’s slightly better than the state’s ranking.

Texas received a D-minus.

The number of cars on the road seems to grow day by day in Tarrant County. Parking lots at businesses that are open are more crowded than they were weeks ago, and an increasing number of party pictures are being posted on social media.

Stay-at-home orders in Tarrant County last through Thursday.

But a growing number of people are frustrated with staying home or not being able to go to work. And Facebook groups — such as Open Texas — are becoming more vocal, calling on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and city and county officials to reopen the state for business.

Dallas County judge believes ‘a science-based approach’ to coronavirus is way to go

Dallas County reported 91 new coronavirus cases and two deaths on Monday.

The pandemic deaths included a Dallas man in his 40s and a Richardson woman in her 70s who was a resident of a long-term care facility. Both had been critically ill in area hospitals.

The county has confirmed 3,105 cases, including 84 deaths.

Monday’s COVID-19 new case total is down from Sunday’s 105, but that could reflect the fact that some labs do not report data on Sunday, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a news release.

“After we see numbers from [Tuesday] and Wednesday we should get a glimpse into which way this week is trending,” Jenkins said. “I’m hopeful the Governor’s announcement of the additional businesses he wants to open will be in alignment with the CDC, public health authorities and the Epidemiology and Infectious Disease Departments of DFW, Harris County and other Texas urban area hospital systems.”

Jenkins said all of those agencies, plus the medical and hospital communities “are already aligned and I’m following their lead.”

“I believe a science-based approach gives us our best opportunity to save lives and open the economy in a way that will keep it open,” he said.

Johnson County reports coronavirus deaths of two men with ties to Alvarado

Johnson County reported its first two local coronavirus-related deaths Monday, including an 80-year-old Alvarado man.

County officials said the other deceased man was the former owner of Cactus Jack’s Boot Country, which is located near Alvarado at the corner of I-35 and U.S. 67. He died on April 10 after a three-week fight in an area intensive care unit.

Johnson County has reported 73 COVID-19 cases, including the death of three residents. The first man died a month ago in California after contracting the coronavirus on a cruise ship.

Of the 73 pandemic cases, 38 patients have recovered. There have been 30 cases confirmed in Burleson, 21 in rural Johnson County, 10 in Cleburne and four each in Alvarado and Mansfield. There have been two cases in Joshua, and single cases in Keene and Venus.

Why you still might have trouble scheduling your surgery despite relaxed coronavirus rules

When Gov. Greg Abbott announced an executive order April 17 allowing some surgeries and procedures to resume in Texas amid the coronavirus outbreak, patients immediately started to call health care providers across Tarrant County to see if their previously canceled appointments could move forward.

But the relaxed restrictions also come with a new set of requirements for health care providers to navigate. As a result, some hospital systems and clinics in Tarrant County said they are starting to reschedule procedures — but in a limited way as they assess the new caveats.

“It’s clear as mud,” said Barry Russo, the CEO of the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, which has locations across Tarrant County. “We were excited when we heard it was coming. We were less excited when we actually saw it, because it is still fairly complicated to get a case posted.”

Since late March, physicians have had to put procedures on hold due to Abbott’s executive order that suspended elective surgeries.

The new executive order — which went into effect at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday — allows for some to proceed, but only if doing so wouldn’t deplete hospital capacity or supplies of personal protective equipment, such as face masks or gloves.

And licensed health care facilities may also resume surgeries or procedures if they certify in writing to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission that they will reserve at least 25% of their hospital capacity for COVID-19 patients, and that they will not request any personal protective equipment from public sources.

But not all hospital systems have chosen to take that option as they balance meeting patients’ needs with being prepared to combat the novel coronavirus.

Texas schools seek fairness when evaluating students for promotion to next grade level

The 2019-2020 school year is not over, even though no students will be appearing on any Texas campuses over the final weeks of the spring semester.

Gov. Greg Abbott ordered April 17 for schools to remain closed, rather than reopening May 4, after medical experts advised that returning to classrooms would create too much risk to students for contracting COVID-19.

Students and their parents, especially the parents, are well-aware of the Austin edict.

School districts, meanwhile, had already prepared for the inevitable.

Their job is to keep students learning in a way they have never taught, but also to evaluate students like never before over the final two months. Teachers must determine if students should be promoted to the next grade for the next school year or retained for another run at their current level.

It appears as if districts will be giving students more chances to advance or graduate from high school, but they have to earn it from home.

“We’re really looking at our system to be a progress-monitoring approach and more of a support for students,” said Jerry Moore, the chief academic officer for the Fort Worth school district.

“Instead of looking at promotion or retention based on grades, it’s really going to be skill-based and what we can do to make sure we get kids the skills they need.”

Can we get sports back during coronavirus? Eyes may be on Fort Worth’s experiment

Fort Worth has positioned itself to be a test for whether pared-down sports can return to television amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

With the PGA Tour aiming to restart its season June 8 in Fort Worth and NASCAR hoping to run a race at Texas Motor Speedway around the same time, city promoters say it’s the perfect move to showcase Fort Worth to a captive national audience. But health officials caution that many steps must be taken to ensure events don’t spread COVID-19. Much is still unknown.

Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price acknowledged that hosting NASCAR and the Charles Schwab Challenge would be an experiment, but one that she hoped would pay off for the city.

“This is a golden opportunity for us to say ‘Working with health officials this is how we can move forward’ with Fort Worth at the front,” Price said. “I think people are looking for a morale boost and this can be it. And a boost to the economy.”

Fort Worth and Tarrant County’s coronavirus restrictions, which ban gatherings outside a household and have closed most businesses, expire at the end of April, though they can be extended. Price rejected the idea the the PGA Tour would be given special treatment at a time when much of the city might still be locked down.

“I’d be shocked if our citizens would be allowed to host large gatherings by then, and I don’t expect gathers would be allowed at Colonial either,” Price said, saying she would not support banquets or other gatherings attached to the golf tournament.

Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley said he hoped that by mid-May the region could begin to loosen restrictions and open businesses. If that’s the case, then he would support the PGA Tour opening in Fort Worth.

Texas has one of the lowest coronavirus testing rates in the US. How did we get here?

Tarrant County public health director Vinny Taneja offered a reassuring coronavirus update to the county commissioners on Tuesday. He told them Texas had performed almost 190,000 tests, the fourth-highest amount of any state in the United States.

But Taneja left out some context. Texas, the second-most populous state in America, has one of the worst views of how coronavirus has affected its residents because of a lack of testing relative to its population of 29 million. Its testing struggles have existed since mid-March at the outset of the crisis and lasted through the early part of last week.

As of April 20, about 0.63% of Texas residents had been tested for coronavirus, according to the COVID Tracking Project. Only Kansas had tested a smaller proportion of its residents. And Texas’ average daily testing rate for mid-April was about 7,800 tests per day, or 27 per 100,000 people. That was worse than all but eight other states.

From April 22-24, Texas recorded between 15,000 to 20,000 new coronavirus tests daily, its highest totals yet. Still, according to numbers crunched in a recent Harvard study shared with The New York Times, states should have a baseline testing rate of 152 tests per day per 100,000 people if they want to safely reopen. That means Texas would need to do a minimum of about 45,000 tests a day.

As Texas mulls reopening businesses and loosening stay at home restrictions, testing has never been more important. The more testing, the better public health experts can detail which areas and communities are most at risk to COVID-19, said Catherine Troisi, infectious disease epidemiologist at UTHealth School of Public Health in Houston. They can best decide where to target increased testing efforts and ensure better contact tracing. “Right now we do not have enough data because of a lack of testing,” Troisi said.

Almost every state needs to improve its testing capacity. California, the largest state in the U.S., had tested just 0.71% of its population as of April 20 (New York, the fourth-largest state, had tested 3.3% of its population). But how did Texas get far behind, far enough to where Oklahoma, which a month ago lagged behind every state, had tested nearly twice as many residents per capita as Texas by April 20? It’s about a lack of statewide cooperation, a strained supply chain and a slower strategy of partnering with private groups at the state level.

Retail chain shut down by Fort Worth code compliance reopens amid coronavirus orders

Three stores that were shut down by Fort Worth Code Compliance on Friday for violating the coronavirus shutdown order reopened over the weekend.

Three Tuesday Morning stores opened to the public on Friday and were promptly shut down by code compliance officers. While Friday was the first day of “retail-to-go” in Texas, Tuesday Morning was allowing people to shop inside, which non-essential businesses are not allowed to do.

However, corporate spokesman Jonathan Morgan said later Sunday that the Texas Division of Emergency Management confirmed via email that Tuesday Morning is an essential business. Morgan said the Fort Worth stores opened Friday because Tuesday Morning sells “a significant amount of food and other essential items.”

City code enforcement officers closed Tuesday Mornings on Hulen and Camp Bowie Friday afternoon, as well as a store off U.S. 287 and Interstate 35. On Sunday, employees at the three locations confirmed over the phone that they were open until 5 p.m.

Code Compliance officials did not immediately return requests for comment.

At Tuesday Morning on Camp Bowie, several customers were shopping inside the store on Sunday. The company’s statement declaring itself an essential business was taped to the automatic doors. Signs posted on the aisles designated which direction customers should walk, similar to arrows in a parking lot.

A manager at the store referred the Star-Telegram’s questions to corporate offices.

Morgan said the stores were limiting customers, maintaining social distancing and ensuring customers and employees wear personal protective equipment. On Sunday, an employee at the store was not wearing a mask until a Star-Telegram reporter asked to speak with her. At least two customers were not wearing a mask or gloves.

Tarrant County launches new online screening process for coronavirus testing

Tarrant County is piloting a new online screening process to determine whether individuals meet the strict criteria for coronavirus testing.

The website, which launched Sunday morning, will begin scheduling appointments as early as Monday. Appointment availability will be very limited during the first week, according to a news release.

Those who qualify for testing based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines will be able to schedule an appointment through the website. Testing will take place in Fort Worth through a partnership with the University of North Texas Health Science Center, the city of Fort Worth and UT Southwestern Medical Center.

More testing sites and increased appointment capacity are expected in the coming weeks.

Online screenings are available in English and Spanish. Anyone who requires assistance in another language can call Tarrant County Public Health at 817-248-6299.

Big outbreak of coronavirus reported in Northeast Texas nursing home

A massive outbreak of coronavirus has been reported at a Paris, Texas nursing home over the weekend, according to Paris’ mayor.

The Paris-Lamar County Health District has received results that 41 of the positive cases in Paris are associated with Paris Healthcare Nursing Home, representing staff and residents, according to The Paris News.

Tests results were received on Saturday by officials.

“This requires all of the resources of the health department and the medical community in order to attempt to contain this outbreak,” Paris Mayor Steve Clifford posted Sunday night on Facebook.

Clifford canceled drive-through testing sites that were scheduled this week in Paris, which is about 135 miles northeast of Fort Worth.

“This virus has seemed distant to most people in our community. It was happening elsewhere, but we in Paris really had not had any significant problem with it,” the mayor posted. “We all figured that everything was overstated and overblown. Many decided that they didn’t even to wear masks. Now we know that many people who were infected with the virus and had no symptoms have been in numerous public places throughout our community.”

Tarrant County reports 111 new coronavirus cases, another death in Fort Worth

Tarrant County reported 111 additional COVID-19 cases and another death Sunday, bringing the total coronavirus-related deaths to 53.

A man in his 70s from Fort Worth died, Tarrant County Public Health said in a news release.

As of Sunday, Tarrant County had 1,947 total cases and 283 recoveries.

“Every death that occurs is regrettable and makes us mindful of the toll this virus is taking in our community,” said Tarrant County Public Health Director Vinny Taneja in the press release.

On Saturday, 130 cases were reported, the second-highest single-day increase in cases behind the 147 cases announced Friday. On Thursday, officials announced 129 cases.

Total Dallas County coronavirus cases surpass 3,000 after 105 new cases reported

Dallas County reported 105 additional COVID-19 cases and the county’s 82nd coronavirus-related death on Sunday.

Dallas County Health and Human Services said the death was of a man in his 50s who was found in his home.

The county now has 3,014 cases. Forty percent of Dallas County’s coronavirus-related deaths have been associated with long-term care facilities.

It was the first Sunday since Gov. Greg Abbott announced in-house worship would be permitted. County Judge Clay Jenkins said nearly every faith leader in the county decided not to have in-person worship despite Abbott’s revised order.

“They are a testament to putting health over wealth,” Jenkins said in a statement. “We must all continue to make smart personal responsibility decisions as Texas is ordered to open up. Government can allow things that public health says are unreasonably unsafe, but they can’t force your participation.”

Abbott said Monday he will issue “a new order for the state going forward, and there will either be portions of that, or all of that, that have statewide application.” Abbott’s current executive order ends April 30.

He also said he would make an announcement Monday regarding new guidance on businesses reopening their doors.

Collin, Denton counties report new coronavirus cases and death of McKinney woman

Collin County reported nine additional cases of coronavirus and its 17th death from the virus on Sunday, and Denton County reported 11 new cases.

Denton County now has 713 confirmed COVID-19 cases. The county also announced two more people recovered from the virus.

Collin County has had a total of 663 COVID-19 cases, including 459 recoveries.

Public health authorities confirmed that a 91-year-old McKinney woman with underlying health conditions who had coronavirus died Sunday at an elderly care facility. No further personal information is being released by the county.

“We are saddened to learn of the death of another member of our community today,” said Collin County Judge Chris Hill in a press release. “We extend our deepest sympathies to her family and friends.”

Of those 663 cases in Collin County, 187 are current. Twenty-three people are hospitalized and 164 are in home isolation, the Collin County Health Department said.

There have been 6,350 negative COVID-19 tests in Collin County and are 1,027 people being monitored for the virus.

In Denton County, 20 people have died from coronavirus.

Second Fort Worth bus driver tests positive for coronavirus; has 9 different routes

A second Trinity Metro bus operator tested positive for COVID-19, the transit agency said in a press release.

The driver operates on bus routes 1 South Hemphill, 2 Camp Bowie, 12 Samuels/Mercantile Center, 14 Sylvania/NE 28th, 21 Boca Raton, 26 Ridgmar Mall/Normandale, 27 Como/Ridgmar Mall, 46 Jacksboro Highway and 65X South Park & Ride Xpress.

The employee has been self-quarantined since April 20. Any passengers who rode the routes driven by the operator from April 5-19 should monitor themselves for possible symptoms, contact their healthcare provider if any symptoms develop, and self-quarantine to avoid possibly exposing others, Trinity Metro said in a statement.

Trinity Metro released the dates and routes the driver had for the two weeks prior to self-quarantine.

The first driver to catch the virus started self-quarantining on March 22. He has fully recovered and is back at work, Trinity Metro said.

This story was originally published April 27, 2020 at 5:00 AM.